Roads watchdog to drive in soon; Tracks cleared for railway regulator

NEW DELHI: Top government officials on Monday said new regulators for roads and railways will be set up soon, the latest in a series of moves aimed at allaying investors' fears over policy logjam in the infrastructure sector.

The roads regulator is expected to get all required clearances by Decemberend, a senior roads ministry official said at a Ficci summit on infrastructure in the city.

The role of a roads regulator is the subject of an ongoing debate, with several officials, including those in the Planning Commission, saying that all aspects of a road project are decided in the concession agreement and no such regulator exists anywhere else. Roads Secretary Vijay Chhibber, however, said, "Just because it doesn't exist anywhere doesn't mean we don't need it. We have come to a stage where we have identified the role that should be assigned to the regulator."

The ministry has envisaged two broad roles for the regulator—adjudicatory and advisory. In the adjudicatory role, the regulator will address dispute resolution, renegotiation of future contracts and enforcement of contractual provisions. In the advisory role, it will look into renegotiation of existing contracts, setting of service standards, tariff structuring and toll mechanisms and project entry and exit options, among others.

In a sign of what foreign investors can bring in for the sector, Canadian High Commissioner Stewart Beck, a participant in the summit, said his country could bring in its vast pension funds to finance India's infrastructure projects. "We have one of the strongest pension systems in the world and are willing to deploy these in infra building," Beck said.

Meanwhile, the railways ministry, in consultation with Law Minister Kapil Sibal, has resolved the issue of Section 29 (O) of the Rail Tariff Authority Act, which would identify exceptional situations where the railways can supersede the policy directives of the RTA.

"Essentially, we want to ensure that in case the authority pushes a decision that we feel is not legitimate, the government would have the power to overrule it," said Railway Board Chairman Arunendra Kumar.